A McDonald's that serves cheesesteaks, let alone muffellettas, po boys, and etouffe is doomed. You can't be everything to everyone. It won't work. It doesn't work. I understand McDonald's doing salads and bottled water-it's to give someone who doesn't eat fast food fare, and is going out for lunch with officemates, another choice. This attempt to be the "be all" looks like Mickey D's grasping at straws. Oh, and by the way, when I'm in N'awlins, I want a po boy or etouffee or a muffelletta from a genuine restaurant that makes them. Not McDonald's. I won't even eat a cheesesteak outside of the NYC to Wash., D.C. corridor-and that's stretching the boundaries of cheesesteakdom, so no cheesesteak for me down there.

Everyone----just take a step back for a minute. Are you working for a big corporation-----or a family held (even if it's a sizable) business? I for one, work for a small company. Yes, I could work for a major company (as I did when I worked for Disney Studios and Sony Pictures). I learned the hard way that we need to support the "mom and pop" companies of all types. I think that's what impresses me most about this group here-----they are actively involved in supporting them. Small business is still the backbone of our country. And nothing still beats a family owned food place!

Everyone----just take a step back for a minute. Are you working for a big corporation-----or a family held (even if it's a sizable) business? I for one, work for a small company. Yes, I could work for a major company (as I did when I worked for Disney Studios and Sony Pictures). I learned the hard way that we need to support the "mom and pop" companies of all types. I think that's what impresses me most about this group here-----they are actively involved in supporting them. Small business is still the backbone of our country. And nothing still beats a family owned food place!

Ditto; small businesses ARE the backbone of this country. Precisely why I buy from a local business in my town whenever possible.

I wholeheartedly support small business owners. I'm currently with a large company that depends on business from small businesses. I don't like being with the company and am in a jobsearch and am trying to land a position with a small company. One that doesn't have CEOs cooking the books, one that doesn't swallow up smaller competitors and let those employees go, one that doesn't have broad layoffs to please Wall Street, and one that actually cares about its employees.

My $0.02 - The M&P establishments that I patronize are the ones that DON'T try to compete on the commodities market that McD's and others are trying to create. As Bushie and others have put it, the survival of M&Ps depends on their ability to stand out against the landscape of same-ness, but their survival also depends a knowledgeable customer base that cares about regional cuisine.

Originally posted by BushieWJ, I’m sorry to hear about your coffee house. I’d like to throw something out for consideration, though. I’m not intending to stir anything up here, just giving us something to think about.There are many reasons why businesses of all types fail, and although it may appear that it’s the fault of a competitor, many times there are simply other reasons.I’m not saying that in every case a local business will survive. I’m just saying that there are many reasons, and you can’t “blanket blame” large business chains.I admire your commitment to patronizing local and other small businesses around the country. I do the same, and I think every member of Roadfood does the same as much as possible.

Bushie,

Thanks for your condolences. Correct, there are many reasons. In this case there were two. The first which we have no control over was that the owners were looking to sell the business open up a bar on the waterfront. The second reason which is a sad commentary was that business was slow. The reason being is that here in Southern New England the Donut Shop is king. There is a Dunkin Donuts or Honey Dew Donut shop literally every mile, no exaggeration here. Both are packed to the rims every morning with lines out the door consisting of robots ordering their extra large iced coffees half of the cup filled with half and half even in WINTER! Coffee houses don't do well in Rhode Island, people here are not used to change, especially here in the suburbs, however on the Eastside of Providence where the local yuppies and college kids live, coffee houses do seem to thrive. However overall, donutland (southern new england) is not too receptive to new and different

Once again, more info on the McDonalds (Mac Deauxneaulds) Cajun Rest. These guys are even less intelligent than I thought.

Cajun cookin' adding spice to McDonald's

By David LeivaThe Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — It won't smell or taste like or resemble McDonald's.

And that's just what the fast-food company is banking on to bring customers to its Cajun-style restaurant coming here.

McDonald's will open a new venture, Chef Mac's, on the first floor of an office building across from New Orleans City Hall and the Louisiana Superdome in September. Modeled after a similar eatery in Orlando, Fla., the new restaurant will have chandeliers, leather couches, stylish tiles and upgraded restrooms.

New Orleans is an interesting testing ground for the restaurant. In this city, where people live to eat, there are 3,088 po-boy, Creole, Cajun, seafood, ethnic and soul-food restaurants, few of which are part of a chain. And the lunchtime crowds are only minutes away from the French Quarter.

That has not deterred McDonald's, suffering from a two-year slump and seeing innovation as the key to its long-term success. The company has tested a number of new concepts in recent years, including diners, coffee shops and self-service kiosks.

Not all concepts are likely to survive, particularly under a new management that has slowed expansion and capital spending and taken a back-to-basics approach at U.S. McDonald's, where speed and service have lagged.

Ed Strong, a marketing professor at Tulane University, said the idea of looking into diverse areas makes sense when traditional restaurants no longer put out the numbers Wall Street craves.

The rest of the industry is doing the same, said Greg Sanders, editor and associate publisher of the quick-food-service trade publication, QSR Magazine.

"American taste has changed," Sanders said. "Speed is important, but quality is now as big."

McDonald's, the world's largest fast-food operator, is trying to regain momentum after a disappointing performance in 2002. Last year, sales exceeded $15.4 billion, but problems with overseas restaurants and companywide spending led to a $743 million, or 45 percent, drop in earnings from 2001.

McDonald's said the Big Easy restaurant will present an upscale menu that locals will recognize.

Walter Grote, a New York native who worked five years in a Cajun restaurant in Houma, La., has been hired as the executive chef. The local-flavored menu will include Louisiana shrimp, po-boys, muffulettas, barbecue chicken, chicken cordon bleu and margarita pizzas. All will be served on plates, not plastic dishes.

Specialty coffees will be sold, along with desserts including praline cheesecake and bread pudding.

Garrett said customers will order and pick up at a 30-foot circular counter. Table service is still under consideration. Prices are expected to be less than $10 per entrée.

"A lot of this is still in development," said Debbie Vice, regional marketing manager.

McDonald's traditional foods will remain on the menu.

Vice said the restaurant will try to appeal to the downtown business clientele.

The average McDonald's does about $1.5 million in sales annually. Garrett said the new restaurant will beat that figure, and Tom Weatherly, of the Louisiana Restaurant Association, agreed.

"The food industry in New Orleans is very diverse," Weatherly said. "Each one of those segments have their own needs and niche."

But Sanders, of QSR Magazine, doesn't share the optimism and says entertaining ideas outside of burger and fries only means one thing.

I think that perhaps some of you are taking a bit to narrow a look at the foodie situation. Business trends would not be successful if the whole core of our culture were opposed to the concept of 'bigger-larger-faster-more generic'.

We build freeways to get more people farther and faster than we could on two lane roads. We wall in those freeways so the masses who use them will not rear-end the guy in front of them while looking at the scenery instead of concentrating on driving safely. The people who make use of those roads do so for a reason. They want to get from Point A to Point B. Except for their 2 or 3 weeks of Summer Vacation or a weekend now and then, they don't drive for pleasure...they drive to get where they are going. This is a very visible alteration in the basic culture we live in. Take that to the employment area (to include the Mom and Pops) and you see an expansion of the Hurry up and Keep us moving attitude. We used to be able to say that if you wanted to see what you would be doing 25 years in the future, look at your Parents. If you wanted to see your life 50 years in the future you looked at your Grandparents. In both cases the implication was that those people were still alive, still within sight, and still playing the role of parent or grandparent. That simply is becoming less true now than it was a decade or two ago. The family structure is NOT what it was in the Post- WW II days. Ozzie and Harriet and the other media images of family life then are gone...and the reality of what families really were are disappearing also. Today's family IS different from those of the 50's and 60's. We use TIME as currency...to be spent to gain a maximum return. We don't drop what we are doing to gather at a dinner table together for a meal (except at special holiday times...and that can become a nightmare of decisionmaking for families where divorce has created a new set of rules) The latest numbers in the university literature that I follow a bit shows that the average college freshman will change major areas of study AT Least 3 times durin his/her undergraduate study. For almost 40% of those undergrads the career area they will follow for most of their working years hasn't been invented when they enter college. Combine these two concepts...The family structure is changing and becoming a series of short-term relationships rather than ONE Start-to-Finish road to follow thru life...and the Technological explosion that is changing How we live and work...and you come up with this summary---Ain't Nuthin' Permanent AnyMore !

I don't like it, but I also realize that the changing life around me is something I must deal with...be that to sit and bitch about it, or do business with those who do more to fulfill my personal needs rather than following the general flow. BUT that will not stop the changes from happening. I find that I compromise often to suit my desires at the time. I may use a drive-thru at fast food place if my time is limited. That doesn't happen often now that I have retired...but it used to quite a bit when we were part of the working world. I drive the freeways and the two lane roads with equal care-or lack of it. I try not to get impatient when my dial-up computer connection is extra slow compared to the sat.-broadband connections in our former location. AND most of all I am trying at my senior-citizen age , to cope with the changes that really mean something to me. Now to wrap this all up with a Foodie example.... We all know that BBQ means LOW and SLOW cooking for a long period of time....but apparently there is a market for those in the usual hurry...If there wasn't there would not be a section in the frozen food section of most markets that offers varieties of HEAT and EAT BBQ ready to satisfy the most demanding BBQ-Fan. Now I am done...Thank you for your undeserved patience.[|)]

Have to agree with all of you that McD's is stretching it.....but...just like the first one that hit Paris (I was there) and we all said just NOBODY would go there to eat........well, it became an overnight success. That's why they do lobster rolls in New England and are attempting to do NO food in LA, because there's always ALWAYS going to be a LOT of folks pulling in there and just ordering up their food (can we really put it in the category of food??)I don't know how many of you fellow Roodfood aficionadoes have worked in kitchens or even been chefs or owned restaurants, but let me tell you......God bless the Moms and Pops of the world because it's the worst job on the planet, at the same time the biggest ego trip! Anybody ever read Anthony Bourdin's book Kitchen Confidential? You think this is fiction? Think again. All that AND MORE happens in a restaurant kitchen on any given day. I trained in Paris and was an Exec. Chef for 22 years. Oh yeah.....GREAT reviews in the Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, etc. In the mean time I blew through a marriage and was committed(by my own standards) to working 90 plus hours a week, all nights, all weekends, all holidays. Fabulous salary, no life. Period. It gets old. That's why I REFUSE, REFUSE to buy even a diet Coke at a McD's or any other fast food establishment. I'd rather buy it bottled at the local food mart. Whether traveling throughout the US, South America, Europe, Asia, I'm either eating in a cafe, a trattoria, chirrua guosto, an outdoor Japanese food market, a diner, a trucker's roadstop, or it's going to be full blown fine dining. Living well, after all, is the best revenge.

I imagine the guys in New Jersey will be working overtime comming up with chemical combinations to taste like peppers, onions, celery, and okra. Just a few drops and you can do away with all that time consuming saute'ing.

Mayhaw - this is a response to something which was posted - since deleted, about Schlosser and his books - and I just threw the comment in as a dig. Since we're inquiring - the folks who are not from the South want to know what a mayhaw is. Just like if you're from he south, you want to know what a buckeye is up north.

One Iron,The buckeye line seems to be about mid state in Louisiana. THey grow wild all over the place, but they don't get very big. They do make buckeyes however. I have been carrying one in my pocket for years (good luck according to my Grandfather).

Sundancer nailed the mayhaw thing. It makes incredibly delicious jelly and even better syrup (if you have tons of juice to cook).

You know what Lee Trevino said about Jack Nicklaus? " Jack can play golf better than God. Even God can't hit a one iron".